Military Advocacy

This service is delivered by seAp a partner of Getting Heard

When military personnel are discharged from the armed forces it can be hard to access the services and support needed to begin and maintain a new life in the civilian community. Advocacy can help greatly to improve quality of life by providing essential support for veterans when trying to access and engage with local, regional and national agencies and service providers.

Advocacy is unique in the way it supports someone to ‘have their say’ working directly with people to help them get their voice heard without judgement. This service supports individuals to express what they need, explore their options and empower them to come up with their own solutions. All advocates have military experience and are well placed to support in making the adjustment to a more independent civilian life.

Issues Supported

Many people come to this service with multiple and complex issues. Working closely with health and social care services, military bases and military focused organisations (e.g. RBL, SSAFA, Combat Stress, SPVA), this service provides specialist support, enabling veterans to address issues including:

Employment

PTSD

Homelessness

Financial Assessments

Mental Health

Housing

Benefits claims & assessments

Medical matters

Mental Capacity

Continuing Care

Care Assessments

Debt Management

Referrals onto South

Relationship matters

Council Tax

Central Veterans

Immigration

Service (SCVS)

Our service works to uphold the promise of the MOD Armed Forces Covenant and aims to ensure that veterans receive the recognition and fair treatment they deserve, without disadvantage.

Eligibility

This specialist service is fully understanding of the particular challenges and needs of those with a military background, delivered by staff with direct experience of the armed forces. Support is available for the following groups of people:

individuals in transition to civilian life

recent service leavers

those who have been out of the military for some time

early service leavers

medically discharged leavers

reservists

veterans who are in prison or detained under the mental health act

close family members or partners

Role of an Advocate

The seAp military advocate works on a one-to-one basis with clients to:

Identify what individuals need to improve their situation.

Establish how to access services or practical help needed.

Support people to speak up about what they want.

Support GP/patient relationships on issues specific to those with military backgrounds.

Support and empower individuals to have their voice heard in decisions affecting their care and treatment.

Provide family support where veterans are not coping with life outside the military.

Prepare people to continue feeling empowered once their advocacy support has ended.

Provide credible, accessible and timely information.

Signpost appropriately to other services.

Funding and Partnerships

This service operates across the Thames Valley area and is currently funded by The Royal British Legion (RBL) with additional financial support from the P.F. Charitable Trust. It also belongs to Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities) and works closely with other military focused organisations supporting armed forces personnel and veterans.

Our service works to uphold the promise of the MOD Armed Forces Covenant and aims to ensure that veterans receive the recognition and fair treatment they deserve, without disadvantage.

Advocate Role

The Military Advocacy Service is a service provided by seAp and funded by the Royal British Legion. We think that this is the only service of its kind in the country and are pleased to be able to provide this specially tailored service.

This service is offered across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire and is open to anyone with a military background who needs support, and also to their family members.We support all veterans regardless of how much time they spent in service or how long ago that was, and also transitional military service leavers.

What we do

When military personnel are discharged from the services they can find it hard to access the services and support they need to begin and hold down a new life in the civilian community.

Our experienced advocate, with a military background, is well placed to understand what it is like to manage outside of the structure of the forces, and can offer that tailored support you need. We will listen to you about the things bothering you and what you can’t work out what to do about them.

We will ask you questions about what you are trying to achieve and then with you, explore all the possibilities so you can make a decision. We will then try and assist you in achieving your goal.

Your advocate will be on hand to:

Write and/or review letters

Talk through documents

Arrange meetings

Attend meetings with you

Follow up the action points of others.

Individuals receive assistance with a range of needs including:

Accessing benefits

Contesting work capability assessments

Housing issues

Medical issues

Mental health issues including PTSD

Above all we try to build a relationship with you so we can help you to achieve your aims.

What we don’t do

We will not give you advice, tell you what to do or try to change your mind but support you in the choices you make. We can’t support you to go down a legal route. But we can help you navigate around the services that are there to support you and help you towards accessing all that you are entitled to.